The invention to be described is a unique process to manufacture flaked fish food for ornamental fish such as those that are kept in a home aquarium, by using undenatured fish protein (raw fish). Flaked fish food is sometimes referred to as flake fish food. The flaked fish food itself is also unique and novel.
There are many types of flaked fish food on the market all of which are made in the same basic way with the same basic ingredients. The major ingredient in all of these products is fishmeal. Fishmeal is a commodity product consisting of ground and processed fish that has been dried to a moisture level of between 4% and 12%. Fishmeal supplies the majority of the protein in the flaked fish food. Fishmeal is a denatured protein.
Denatured proteins are those that have been pre-cooked breaking up some of the amino acid chains into individual amino acid units or into shorter chains. Denatured proteins are incapable of gel formation in the flaked fish food manufacturing process and do not contribute to the binding properties of the finished flaked fish food.
Undenatured proteins are those that have not previously been heat-treated. Undenatured proteins have amino acid chains which are undamaged and are capable of gel formation. Fresh fish (sometimes referred to herein as raw fish or uncooked fish) is an example of an undenatured protein.
Raw fish, or any other animal protein, when first cooked has the ability to "gel" or bind together. An example of this would be an egg or a hamburger. When initially cooked these proteins "stick" together. This is caused by the cell walls rupturing the cytoplasm and then molding together. This will only happen the first time that animal proteins (i.e. raw fish) are cooked or processed. Afterward, as in the case of an egg or hamburger, the protein if chopped up or ground will no longer bind together. In other words, you cannot break up a hamburger into small pieces and stick it back together. This is the stage that fishmeal is in when used as an ingredient for a flaked fish food.
In order to bind the fishmeal together and to add other ingredients to the mix, flaked fish food manufacturers have always used starch binders, such as wheat, rice potato and other plant starches. These starches when cooked will "gel" and bind the ingredients together to make a flaked fish food. The cooked starches bind the fishmeal together so that the flaked fish food will stay at a suitable size for feeding and will not crumble. The bond formed as the result of cooking starches is not very good as compared to the bond formed by cooking raw fish (undenatured protein) as is done in the instant invention.
The problem with the starch bond is that the resulting flaked fish food tends to be stiff and unnatural as food to fish. In addition, since the starch bond is water soluble, the vitamin mixes, and other additives to the food begin to leach out immediately upon being placed in the aquarium. If the flaked food is not eaten right away, a substantial amount of the vitamin mix may leach away into the water before the fish have the opportunity to digest them. Starch bonded fishmeal begins to disintegrate once in the water causing small particles of food to mix with the aquarium water as a pollutant.
Another negative aspect of flaked fish food based on fishmeal is that the food does not appeal to fish because the main ingredient, fish meal, has already been processed once, with most of the fats removed and preservative added. This lack of attractiveness can be the difference between life and death for an aquarium fish whose appetite has been negatively affected by the stress of being new to an aquarium, fighting a sickness, or having its territory invaded by a new fish to the aquarium.
By replacing the fishmeal (denatured protein) with raw fish (undenatured protein, i.e., salmon, halibut, black cod, Pacific cod, herring, rockfish, shrimp and/or krill), the new flaked fish food provides the following unique and innovative characteristics and benefits:
1) A flaked fish food that is very flexible in water resulting in a soft natural feel for the fish when feeding.
2) The protein bond formed by the undenatured proteins (raw fish), while more flexible, is substantially water insoluble unlike the starch bond in fishmeal based flaked foods. The undenatured proteins bind such that the resulting flaked fish food holds together better leaving less food residue in the aquarium. Another benefit is that the water quality of the aquarium is improved. Thus the vitamin mix that has been added to the flaked food stays suspended in the protein binded flake resulting in a much higher level of vitamin intake for the fish.
3) Using fresh seafood instead of fishmeal has shown a much higher level of attractability as compared to fish foods with fishmeal. This is especially important for aquarium fish who are often stressed for a variety of reasons, including being new to a tank, overcrowding, and poor water quality. At times like this fish often will not eat well or stop eating all together. In these situations a flaked food that is highly attractive to fish will make a huge difference to fish survival rates in a home aquarium.
4) In experiments, conducted over a three month period, fish eating only the flaked fish food made with fresh seafood as the main ingredient showed a much higher level of growth than five other types of fishmeal based flaked fish foods.